While Courant columnist Rick Green and I vehemently disagree about state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s continued suitability to be Connecticut’s Top Legal Officer after his frequent lies about Vietnam military service, Green and I are on the same page when it comes to Martha Dean, the Avon attorney who is making another run at the Attorney General’s post.

In Green’s column today headlined “Martha Dean, A Candidate Who Shoots From The Hip,” she is diplomatically described as a fringe candidate.

I don’t mince my words (perhaps that is why my attorney Joe Garrison of New Haven keeps urging me to take out libel insurance to help protect me for my “intemperate” comments).

I think Dean is a whack job.

The more she talks about her beliefs, and how she would run the state Attorney General’s office, the more you are going to see that she might even make some Tea Party members cringe.

I first wrote about Dean, who had run unsuccessfully against Blumenthal in 2002, earlier in the year when she announced that she would run again this year.

In her press conference announcing her candidacy, said she would run a much different, less anti-business office.

She claimed Blumenthal filed “gotcha” lawsuits.

Martha Dean from her Facebook page

However her lengthy statement, Entering AG Race 3-16-10, does not have any examples of improper suits. You might want to read it if you are thinking about voting for her in the GOP primary for AG. She has some interesting thoughts about firing assistant attorney generals and basically reducing consumer protection abilities.

In his column today, Green talks about Dean’s agenda to fight for looser gun controls and to require schools to teach children gun safety.

Now I am not an anti-gun or anti-second amendment person. I own guns. I had a permit for about 10 years when I lived in Connecticut and will again have a permit in Massachusetts where I live. I don’t hunt, but believe in being able to protect our home and I love to target shoot, especially with my son and granddaughter – both of whom I taught to handle guns safely and to shoot.

But when many of our schools can’t even teach reading, writing and arithmetic, I don’t think handgun training is a high priority for mandatory classes.

I think I have now properly offended liberal Democrats who don’t see a problem in Blumenthal making up stories of Vietnam valor and conservative Republicans who think Dean is just what Connecticut needs to protect its consumers and businesses.

Sorry, I can’t take you seriously when you say “assistant attorney generals”. A real columnist would know that it is “Assistant Attorneys General”.

Clean your own house before you start cleaning somebody else’s.

Maybe Martha’s a little more to the right than CT is used to, but look at where the Left got us. We’re screwed; in a world of hurt financially, and the business and college grad exodus is out of control. At least Martha wants to try to keep business here.

What’s the harm in wanting schools to teach gun safety? I think it’s a good idea. It will never pass the legislature, and there will never be any funding for it, so it’s a dead issue, but a good idea.

You said you have firearms. So do I. It bothers me that I taught my kids gun safety so that they will be safe in my home, but other kids may not have been taught by their parents, and if my kid is at somebody’s house and gets shot because his or her little friend didn’t know that “the gun was loaded”, and didn’t know the OTOT rule, then all of the lawsuits in the world aren’t going to replace my child.

I would think that you nanny staters would be all over this. I mean, we can’t be trusted to teach our kids about sex, the schools have to do it, we can’t be trusted to use our seat belts, there has to be a law demanding it. The government overreach into our personal lives delves deeply into criminal, and finally, here is a government over reach that might make some sense, and you rail against it.

George,
I commented over at Rick’s blog and figured I’d post the same here. …

Did Dean suggest firearm training be mandatory? She said ‘advocate training’ not ‘mandate’. That said, I don’t think firearm training should be mandatory, but if we’re going to mandate elementary school kids get sex-ed training. 😉

I did not get the impression she wanted to allow new fully automatic weapons either. It’s a ridiculous straw man since the 1934 National Firearms Act strictly regulates machine gun ownership.

In reality, Connecticut is not too restrictive concerning firearms. Once you have completed the safety training, paid your state permit fees, met the legal requirements and gone through a background check, you can purchase and carry a loaded pistol concealed or openly. You can even carry on state college campuses.

Are we seeing ‘wild west’ shootouts in the street? Nope. Don’t be concerned about the resident who applies for a legal permit to carry a pistol, be concerned about the criminal who will use brut strength, a knife, baseball bat, box cutter, metal pipe or yes – a pistol – who wants to do harm.

Martha Dean is a great person with middle class normal views. The people that you should be SCARED of are Leftist Looneys like John DeSefano, Michael Lawlor, Martin looney Tune Looney, Angry Ned DeStefano etc etc etc. They are the politicians the rest of country view as EXTREME.
There is nothing wrong with teaching kids about guns and their safe handling. I was on a school rifle team in Hamden High and there were never any proplems. Its ok to teach little kids about same sex parents but OH NO, guns are sooooo taboo lol.

I was just on the Rick Green site. I don’t think these journalsists get it. The people are ready for a leader of Martha’s calibrer, She is the real deal and some day you are going to see her on the national stage, mark my words. The people of CT are sick and tired of mis-speak, and gutter politics. Ned

With all the failed gun laws on the books, This one actually sounds like it might work. growing up in central PA., I was taught to shoot very early in life. (also taught when not to shoot). I she would fight cities forceing people off their land so a politcal hack can give it to a ” developer”, look to New London for a bad idea.

Being that CT is 47th in the nation for being friendily to BUSINESS because of the re-
gressionist policies of the LIBERAL REGRESSIONISTS [ democrats ] ; I would definitely welcome a change to this state from the top all the way through the legis-
lature. The croonyism with the democ over the last few years has been out of control.

Martha Dean does not scare me. Anyone who advocates that political power rests with the people alone and not the elites, does not scare me. The 2nd Amendments is just one of those rights that ensures power stays witht he People. Martha Dean knows that. Most of the Democrat Party does not. Power grabbing Liberals marching us towards fascism scares me.

Dear George,
I’m sorry you lost your lawsuit against the Courant, and I understand why you might be bitter. But it’s time to put anger and bitterness aside. It is just this type of bitterness that leads to the mean-spirited politics and angry and misleading “opinion-journalism” that people are so sick of. Life is tough for all of us. It’s time to move on and be positive and constructive about the difficult road ahead for everyone.

My campaign for AG is about taking the legal steps needed to allow us all to once again realize the incredible potential of Connecticut. We were once a state of leading inventors, thinkers, entrepeneurers, financial institutions, and more. Poor leadership has dragged us down. We have slumped into the status of a uncompetitive, mediocre, second-rate state.

For those in Connecticut who who not lived anywhere else, it might not be apparent yet. But the writing is on the wall: 10,000 businesses in CT left or shut down last year; each CT citizen carries the heaviest tax load per capita in the nation, supports the highest number of state workers per capita in the nation, and owes the highest debt per capita in the nation. This IS nuts — but the people who call a spade a spade are not, despite certain opinion writers’ efforts to claim otherwise.

Read my column: “The Making of an American.” You’ll find it on my webpage, under the Issues tab. Just click on Martha’s columns and you will get a list with this one. You will see that the truth is this: I am a common-sensical, non-political, person of wisdom, knowledge of the roots of our free society, and courage. This is what the people of Connecticut and the Nation are crying out for, and it is this that I, and so many others here and nationwide — who have stepped forward at great personal cost — will give them this year.

she does look like the Terminator Hottie Linda Hamilton. Only problem is she is off the wall scary like Bachman and Palin. She will get about 20% of the vote and that’s it. Thank the Lord there are normal people voting in this election.

Well, Linda Hamilton WAS an ‘observer of the world’s destruction’, she WAS a ‘visionary’ and she DID help fearlessly save the world in “The Terminator’,…didn’t she?
It’s my honor to endorse Martha Dean for CT AG. You GO, MARTHA! I have complete confidence in you and lift you and the team up in prayer each and every day.
God Bless you and God Bless America.
With Love in Christ,
Rev. Barb

It is refreshing to see a real American running for Attorney General. Especially when you consider the other candidate: a lying draft-dodger who will do anything to get his picture in the paper or on TV.

Martha Dean actually intends to work to restore Constitutional government. I know that is scary to people who are used to having their masters in Washington and Hartford make all the hard decisions for them. There are a lot of people in Connecticut who seem to be afraid of Freedom. They have the slave mentality.

The only difference between North Korea, Nazi Germany and the Islamic Republic of Iran and US, is the amount of power held by the respective government. The more we allow government power to grow, the closer we get to those nations.

There is only so much power. When most of the power is in the hands of the individual, there is FREEDOM. When most of the power is in the hands of the state, we have TYRANNY. Make your choice. Do you want to be a slave? Do you want your choice made for you by your masters? Do you want your masters to decide on your health care? Which firearms, if any, you are allowed to own? How many children you may have? Then stay on your knees and vote for Dick Blumenthal.

If however, you chose FREEDOM, stand on your hind legs and vote for Martha Dean.

Pretty soon Americans will start realizing that the real whack-jobs are the people in the media that write articles like this one, not candidates like Martha Dean who truly understand the history of our country and the need for limited government.